AidenNicol

Not a lot of point. All of the heroes we have that we pour the CP our army generates into require the NIGHTHAUNT keyword. The only non-nighthaunt units worth looking at in Legion of Grief are the Necromancer and Mortis Engine, depending on your play style.

well the clever thing about my strategy is rather than trying to pick where you think the most fighting will take place, you actually get to decide EXACTLY where that will be. You put down those 3 sites dead close to one another and you're making a statement the enemy can't ignore. Given how objectives work you're not going to know where the fighting will happen (Starstrike, Shifting Objectives etc.) so pick a central point and commit to that. Put buff heroes like Necro and ShroudKnight here to keep the unit as deadly as it is durable.

I do. Point one, if your general isn't the Dreadblade Harrow, make it the general. Point 2. You want 3 of the objectives reasonably close together so that one unit can benefit from all three. This unit has been relegated as "extremely durable unit to soak threat targeting", for this role I reccomend 40 Chainrasps or 30 Grimghast Reapers, anything buffable with an ethereal save really. The other units in your army have been relegated to "bring back when dead". The fourth point goes behind the enemy army, 9 inches from the enemy table edge. This means that should they not commit forces to protecting this site, your general can instantly warp there and bring back a unit you threw into an aggressive fight earlier. Always be spending your units. Be as aggressive as you can. Your opponent isn't likely to be getting their stuff you kill back, but you will.

When you aren't a top tier army, you've got to really think out the box in order to compete. All that you can do is keep practicing and sharing experiences.

Absolutely, I'll get that done. For now, the small bases with the gravestones on them are my grave sites, and the ice bases being shattered by grasping hands are Regan's. Due to both our Gravesites working for each other my Dreadscythe Harridans were in range of no less than 5 Gravesites over the couse of that phase. I started with the 3 (2 of mine, 1 of Regan's) near them and restored 8 in a line over the central terrain piece, bringing me into range of another 2 Gravesites which then returned another 4. These triggers are stackable as the "check to see if you are within range of gravesites" cause and the "return d3 models" effect both take place at the start of the Hero Phase.

Absolutely. Nighthaunt offers Wave of Terror which gives you a 13% or so chance to fight twice. The Unquiet Dead grants you a 100% chance to bring back a unit of 30 Grimghast Reapers with no dice roll. Also if you play it smart you can resurrect dead models on 32mm bases (i like Dreadscythes for this) in a conga line outward to expand your zone of control and set up charge moves or retreat moves to cop objectives. As an aside i recommend you take Aetherquartz Broach off your general and give it to a different hero, currently all your eggs are sitting in a very fragile basket that can potentially die to only 2 D3 mortal wound spells.

I bought 4 boxes when i started playing Legion of Grief and got them painted immediately. Harridans always seem to pull through for me even when seasoned tournament units like Grimghast Reapers and Bladegheist Revenants come up short.

With regards to the query of whether or not it is legal, as currently it has NOT been FAQ'd to be illegal and no specific ruling exists against it, with the only detractors against it ruling from how they "think" it should be, it has been allowed in my local meta as it's hardly gamebreaking as only two threats that are commonly run that can benefit from it (Dreadscythe Harridans and Grimghast Reapers) actually hit on 4's, and it's detrimental on Reapers anyway due to "rerolls before modifiers". With regards to the questions on Grimghast being worth it, you'll find that extra range really brings them into their own. There is a very good reason why they specifically catapulted Legions of Nagash to being the top army alongside Daughters of Khaine in late 2018.

Details Date: 16th November 2019 Army: Legions of Grief with Buff-o-Rama Opponent: Regan O'Halloran - Legion of Night with Debuff Focus Game Type: Matched Play 2000pts Scenario: Border War 2019 (rolled at random) Setup We rolled out the random terrain and ended up with a healthy blend of new and old rules, with the large centerpiece terrain model and the piece next to it yielding overgrown which would have been neat if either of us had shooting attacks or any ranged focus. We placed our Gravesites predominantly on (my) left side, both clearly planning to strongly contest the point there. Regan won the rolloff, but with no Commanding or Arcane terrain on the table he opted to take the side with the least terrain to prevent him moving around, being fully aware that my army cannot receive cover saves from terrain anyway. In a canny play of tactics Regan didn't deploy his Vargheists till the end, and opted to NOT ambush anything in his army. Of course by the time this revealed itself, I had placed my 40 Chainrasps behind my army to cover off any potential ambushes (last game we played he ambushed and killed two support heroes nearly immediately), his subtle mind-game tricking me into deploying my army further back from him than I normally would, ensuring I would be making no massive moves into his army turn 1. With both sides set up and Regan having the choice of who would start, he categorically selected me (man loves that Double Turn potential) and gave me the first move. (Besides what is visible above, Regan has paid for a Balewind Vortex and an extra Command Point. I have also paid for an extra Command Point) Battle Round 1 - Bore-der War Having been given turn 1 in Border War, I began the process of doing exactly what everyone playing Border War on turn 1 EVER does, moving up to tag the side objectives and score 5 points. My hero phase was brief, immediately failing to cast Mystic Shield on turn 1 always gets my hopes high. I had some good runs, had to spend a Command Point to nab a 6 to run after the Chainrasps on the right rolled a 1 and was rewarded by receiving 2 Command Points back from my Vassal/Broach combo. My troops moved up on all fronts to insulate my home objective (and Gravesites) and the flanks secured both objectives with enough models to make sure Regan would need to seriously commit to take each from me. Confident I had taken the best available course of action, I passed to Regan. Regan's hero phase was a lot more exciting than my own. He immediately summoned a Balewind Vortex while dropping Morbeg's Claw, granting his Necromancer and Mannfred von Carstein +2 to their casting rolls. Largely out of range for now (and with my Myrmourn Banshees close at hand) they kept their casting succinct, laying down Mystic Shield and Van Hel's Dance Macabre on the leftmost unit of Skeletons with Swords. Neferata blessed the unit of Vargheists nearest to her with Dark Mist, and both units then immediately closed in on my unit of Myrmourn Banshees. I had left a 5" gap between my unit of Dreadscythe Haridans and my Myrmourn Banshees, ensuring that no massive boost to movement could place a model between the units in the move phase, and that a charge that carried the unit over the front rank would draw both into combat and guarantee the destruction of the enemy. Regan rolled a modest charge and instead opted to dump all of his attacks into the Myrmourn. Half the unit was immediately evaporated, and the other half was able to kill a Vargheist in the other unit before meeting the same fate themselves. Regan's other flank failed to get enough skeletons into range of the point to capture it from me, and he scored 3 points. Priority Phase came around with myself winning the toss. With no Predatory spells in play and me being close enough to Regan to immediately cop a charge from him should he go, I elected to take the turn. End of Battle Round 1 Score: Aiden 5 - Regan 3 Battle Round 2 - Dirty Debuffs, Done Dirt Cheap In keeping with the grand tradition, I opened my turn by attempting to cast Van Hel's Dance Macabre on my Grimghast Reapers and immediately failed to cast it. Disappointed but not surprised, I ordered my ghostly legions into a full advance. The Dreadblade Harrow warped into being within 9" of a Gravesite, and the 40 Chainrasps moved up to replace the 20 Dreadscythe Harridans as they began their advance forward to the Varghiests. On the left flank, the 10 Chainrasps advanced JUST far enough to recap the objective from Neferata and her backup Skeleton dancers. On the right flank, the Chainrasps and Dreadscythe Harridans heavily consolidated their grip on that objective, and the Grimghast mobilized forward to charge the 40 Skeletons with Spears. With the moves finished, the Dreadblade Harrow called to beyond with a Command Point (and got it back) to return my slain Myrmourn Banshees to existence. The Grimghast Reapers then swept in, intent on sweeping the skulls from the skeletal bodies of their opponents. Activating the Grimghast Reapers first (being consciously aware that the massive pile of attacks from the Skeletons would be adequate to brick the unit entirely) I started swinging my scythes around. Without a single buff the unit managed to strike down half the unit, clipping it's combat effectiveness on the strike back. Regan then activated his Vargheists into my Dreadscythe Harridans on the other side of the table. Fortunately, I rolled extremely well on armor saves and Deathless Minions saves, and lost barely a handful. In retaliation they shaved away both Vargheist units, leaving a single model in each unit. The Skeletons struck back on the other flank, but their reduced numbers and impressive saves from the Grimghast Reapers saw only 3 fall. Regan spent a Command Point (and got it back) on the Skeletons to dodge the brutal Battleshock test. I scored another 5 Victory Points and the turn passed to him. Regan's hero phase began with no less than 10 Skeletons returning to his unit of Skeletons, giving them their combat buffs back. Then he began casting some magic from his Necromancer, Mannfred and Neferata. After a few unmodifed 9's to cast on Fading Vigor and Overwhelming Dread he had turn my Dreadscythe Harridans into having 1 attack and hitting at -1, then popped a Command Point to use Neferata's Twilight Allure to make sure the turn went his way. Regan's moves were relatively conservative - Mannfred drifted behind the Balewind Vortex to bide his time, Neferata advanced to make sure she could charge the Chainrasps holding the left objective on a 3, and everything else largely stayed where it was. With no shooting either, he went straight to charges. Predictably, Neferata and her entourage of Skeletons thundered into the 10 Chainrasps. Predictably Regan opted to activate his Skeletons fighting the Grimghast Reapers first, and pumped 100+ attacks into them. Amazingly 3 Grimghast Reapers survived. The Dreadscythes were pumped up by the Knight of Shrouds to have a more reasonable hit rate and were able to slice apart the last Vargheist in one unit and leave the other bitterly wounded. Neferata obviously killed 10 Chainrasps, though it was actually a close thing. The Grimghast Reapers spitefully murdered another handful of Skeletons before disappearing in the battleshock phase. Going into the Priority Phase, Regan was able to beat me in the roll and take the turn. While a double turn at the start of the third battle round would be damning, his unit of Skeletons with Spears had a unit of Chainrasps in front of them to prevent their easy advance (I had a feeling this could happen) and the other flank had to stay where it was to prevent a mass sweeping advance from my main force. End of Battle Round 2 Score: Aiden 10 - Regan 8 Battle Round 3 - Vampire Queen, Deceiver, Mortarch... Assassin? The Gravesites once again were good to Regan, bringing his large Skeleton unit even closer to full fighting strength. The debuffs (almost) all went off again without a hitch, this time Neferata's Dark Mist was unbound by a unit of Myrmourn Banshees, netting themselves an extra attack in the process. The Dreadscythes had been once again heavily clipped in their effectiveness, and in an extreme display of believing in the heart of the cards, Regan burned his last Command Point for Neferata's Twilight Allure, and was rewarded for his faith by getting the point back. The movement phase was largely uneventful, with the Skeletons with Spears advancing to the 3" mark from the Chainrasps, and Neferata moving into position to tag the entire left half of the table with her aura. Mannfred smelt weakness on the wind and charged the debuffed Dreadscythe Harridans, and the Skeletons then expectedly charged the Chainrasps. What wasn't expected however was Neferata then charging 11" to place herself behind my army and in range with my... Dreadblade Harrow. Having horrific flashbacks of the last time Regan pulled a similar move, I spent a Command Point at the start of the combat phase on All Out Defense, scoring a Mystic Shield-esque reroll of 1's to save. I also popped the Knight of Shrouds Command Ability Spectral Overseer twice to grant +2 to hit rolls to units wholly within 12" of himself, offsetting Twilight Allure's -1 to hit. Neferata went first and threw everything she had into the Dreadblade, who, astoundingly, only took 3 wounds total. Neferata's infamous Dagger of Jet failed to instantly slay the Dreadblade Harrow, and her assassination attempt was foiled. The Dreadscythes, pumped up to not being completely worthless by Spectral Overseer, were able to score a few hits on Mannfred's Armor of Templehoff, which negated one wound and saw him take a meager 3. The Skeletons swept away the Chainrasps immediately, and Mannfred was able to kill half a dozen Dreadscythe Harridans with sweeping blows from Gheistvor. Neferata faced 8 attacks from 4 Myrmourn Banshees, and with their hit and wound rolls buffed by the Knight of Shrouds and Guardian of Souls respectively, she was torn to pieces and banished to Nulahmia. Regan had recaptured the side objective and scored a solid 5 Victory Points and pulled ahead to 13. My turn opened with a massive power-play. From my Gravesites. Dreadscythe Harridans had their numbers restored fully to 20 as they conga-lined off the fight and over the central terrain piece to wrap around Regan's exposed home objective, and the Chainrasps that had taken by-blows from Mannfred's repeated Winds of Death blasts returned to full strength. The Necromancer, likely suddenly aware that his point cost was coincidentally the same as bumping my unit of Grimghast Reapers to 30 and taking a Prismatic Pallisade, suddenly pulled his finger out and cast Van Hel's Dance Macabre successfully on the 15 Dreadscythe Harridans near him. The Dreadblade Harrow, playing it safe after his brush with death, warped into the center of the Chainrasp Horde holding the home objective. The Dreadscythes near Mannfred promptly retreated and wrapped themselves tightly around the opposing home objective, After the forces had moved into position, the Dreadblade Harrow once again exercised his mastery of the dark arts and returned 20 Grimghast Reapers to the table. The Dreadscythe Harridans thundered into the Chainrasps, supported by remaining wholly within 12" of the nearby Knight of Shrouds. The Myrmourn Banshees, retaining their bonus attack due to the wording of Spell-Eaters, closed in on Mannfred and his supporting units to ensure he didn't chase the retreating Dreadscythe Harridans. The Skeletons had their numbers obliterated by screeching Dreadscythe Harridans finally having a chance to trade blows, and the Myrmourn Banshees took the brunt of Mannfred's enraged fury, halving the unit. The remainder struck back, crippling Mannfred down to a mere handful of wounds remaining. The Skeletons received Regan's last Command Point to stay on the table and denying me the side objective by a single model. Taking the home objective from Regan while retaining my own netted me 5 points, and I won the priority roll. Surveying the table, Regan opted to surrender as my return of the Grimghast Reapers and ability to summon 2 units of 10 Chainrasps onto the left objective meant I would capture all the points in the concurrent turn. End of Battle Round 3 Score: Aiden 15 - Regan 13 Final Outcome: Major Victory to Aiden and the Legion of Grief. Conclusion What went well Not investing points into buffing the Grimghast Reapers and instead supporting the less efficient factors of the army (Myrmourn Banshees, Dreadscythe Harridans) gave the army a consistency it carried all game. Reviving slain units every battle round after round 1 ensured a brutal attrition game that favored me. Screening my heroes (mostly) well ensured all 4 lived till the end of the game. What went poorly The Dreadblade Harrow nearly dying to Neferata was a massive misplay by me, he should never be in a situation where he can have an enemy successfully pile into him. I should have just tagged the unit of Skeletons with Spears on the flank with Grimghast Reapers and waste their combats rather than fight them head on. Make more use of All Out Defense rather than just when desperate to stay alive as it will improve the durability of my threat units, which are almost always illegible to receive it due to being wholly within 12" of a Knight of Shrouds or Guardian of Souls. All around a great game. Regan's debuff list caught me off guard at first and almost stole the game early on. After his recent defeats of me I was however able to apply what I had learned and pull out a win to bring our scoreboard back to an even 3/3. Regan's twitter: @PaintPyrow My Twitter: @ThreeTwoPrince

yeah back in the ole day I ran maybe 130-160 monks, but I backed them up with at least 2 furnaces, 3 priests and 80 allied clanrats (this being pre skaventide).

I agree that they're good, i just prefer having a single unit of 30 Grimghast Reapers that just doesn't need any support do achieve the same results. As i said, if i was running Nighthaunt I'd be taking my 2 units of 10 with Reikenor and Shroudguard, but in Grief i want value (and numbers) for points.

Chainrasps dramatically overperform every time I use them. Personal favorite is stringing them out in front of my force to ward off alpha strikes against Slaanesh/Daughters of Khaine/Khorne, then immediately resummoning the unit in the following turn. Bladegheists in their current state really aren't doing it for me. The unit of 20 (which you want to maximize footprint and efficiency with the resurrection) just doesn't contribute a set role that Chainrasps (retreating over units to tag objectives), Grimghast Reapers (threat removal, high value threat unit) and Dreadscythe Harridans (body clearers) can't do better. Bladegheist are definitely better when you're Nighthaunt with the Shroudguard, but in Legion of Grief they're too overcosted and undersupported.

Definitely interested to hear how this goes, as it doesn't seem like many people have actually run the whole 150+ plague monk list no matter how much chatter I hear about it. I've never ran Horticulous, but if you find he underperforms you could always swap him out for a Grey Seer on Screaming Bell, make it your general to keep the plague monk battleline per the Skaventide restrictions and then you'll have access to the infamous "Death Frenzy" spell that lets you force your plague monks to work overtime.

Have done a similar thing with my black knights where i made them as the knghts but have them swords and axes instead of lances and painted them ghostly. However as cool as they are I'd rather have 30 wounds of Grimghast Reapers than 40 wounds of Black Knights.

Sadly the only way to get Vampire Lords into LoG would be the mercenary company, which both requires at least one unit of Blood Knights (super good just not here), and costs us our turn 1 CP (uh oh). Ultimately not worth it

Sup all, Name's Aiden, been running Legion of Grief since i discovered it had more (in my country's meta at least) playing power against other stronger armies than Nighthaunt and have essentially switched to LoG until Nighthaunt get some kind of update or draw for me to play them. Finished in the top 20 for my country (New Zealand) so I've been invited to the masters tournament which is in 2 weeks, thought you might like to see the list I've been running. Allegiance: Legion of GriefMortal Realm: HyshLeadersDreadblade Harrow (90)- General- Trait: Vassal of the Craven KingGuardian of Souls with Nightmare Lantern (140)- Spell: Dread WitheringNecromancer (130)- Artefact: Aetherquartz Brooch- Spell: Dread WitheringKnight of Shrouds (100)Battleline40 x Chainrasp Horde (280)10 x Chainrasp Horde (80)10 x Chainrasp Horde (80)Units20 x Grimghast Reapers (320)12 x Myrmourn Banshees (210)20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (280)15 x Dreadscythe Harridans (240)Endless Spells / Terrain / CPsExtra Command Point (50)Total: 2000 / 2000Extra Command Points: 1Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 147 It's your standard CP farm army that just care's about denying space and ramping out CP in the midgame to close out the game by heavily pumping up units with the stackable buff from the KoS + Reroll 1s to hit command ability added in GHB2019. The goal is less to kill and more to abuse massive durability tied with the ability to restore losses to hold objectives. The masters pack leans extremely heavily towards packs that favor high numbers, so I'm confident I can do well with it. I've got a blog on here where I'll post all the matchups and how the games go.

Details Date: 10th November 2019 Army: Legions of Grief with Penumbral Engine Opponent: Kyle Duncalf - Draichi Ganeth Daughters of Khaine with Morathi Game Type: Matched Play 2000pts Scenario: Starstrike 2019 (rolled at random) Setup The board yielded a large amount of varied terrain rules, including a Commanding piece that had me salivating. Naturally Kyle took this side, to my dismay. I set up my Gravesites to be spread fairly evenly with Starstrike being relatively unpredictable, with 2 placed in front of my Penumbral Engine (represented by the square of blue dice, mine is still on sprue and i was meant to build it the night previous but ended up babysitting). Kyle easily outdropped me, having 7 to my 13. Having free choice of who starts and losing nothing by going second due to it being Starstrike, Kyle gave me first turn. Didn't bother with a battle mat as it was a torrential downpour and the nearest one was inside. Battle Round 1 - The Worst Trade, Maybe Ever Acutely aware that a double turn would absolutely obliterate me, I was somewhat cautious to do anything too dramatic. I collected my free CP from the Penumbral Engine, spread out my backfield to prevent the two enemy units of Khinerai Heartrenders from having an easy ambush on my vulnerable support heroes, and moved my Grimghast Reaper bomb forward to the Gravesite 8" in front of it so it was tagged by 3 whole Gravesites as well as surrounding a Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, giving them decent durability. My choices were down to holding back and risk the Daughters of Khaine getting a double-turn and boxing me in my own deployment for the remainder of the game, or move forward and deny this at the risk of facing an even more lethal double turn. I could have placed Gravesites hard behind his army and warped my general to them to bring on flanking units, but I was aware Kyle would simply drop his Heartrenders on the Gravesites and I would lose use of them completely. Apprehensive but confident I had done all I could, I passed to Kyle. Kyle immediately began the bufforama on all of his threat units, particularly the Witch Aelves adjacent to my Grimghast Reapers. I kept asking him if he planned to cast Mindrazor (an exceptionally powerful spell and arguably the best in their book, it's literal only counter are ethereal models with bravery 10 as it grants improved rend, as well as improved damage if the target's bravery is lower than the attacker) which he politely ignored. Catechism of Murder (6's to hit inflict 2 hits) failed to go off (phew), but they still received received Sacrament of Blood (treat the battle round as one higher for their allegiance ability), the Witchbrew buff (reroll wound rolls + immunity to battleshock, often called Sippy Cup) from the Hag Queen behind the unit. Morathi, the High Oracle of Khaine and First Sorceress of the forgotten Druchii nation attempted to cast a single spell and failed it. The Cauldron of Blood awoke it's Avatar of Khaine and the army advanced forward, everything that could run and charge ran, and the Avatar fired a stream of boiling blood into the Grimghast which splashed off them harmlessly like water on rock. Then the Witch Aelves hit my front rank and swung 20 Aelves worth of attacks at full buff with bonuses on the charge to hit. The result is below. 5 Reapers remained standing. With their effectiveness utterly obliterated and the size of the unit diminished to the point it was only withing range of a single Gravesite before moving, i allowed battleshock to remove the unit rather than waste a point planning to return them to the other end of the table immediately and abandon the left flank to the aelf rampage. I had traded 30 Grimghast Reapers, costing 400+ points, for a single Witch Aelf. If i failed to return the unit, this would lose me the game. At the end of this round going into the second we rolled for the first objective, which naturally landed center field i middle of some Witch Aelves. I rolled for my Penumbral Engine and it remained on the mode that gives me free CP. Priority roll came about with myself winning ties, sadly I rolled a 2 to Kyle's 4. He opted to take the turn. Battle Round 2 - The Shadow Queen Emerges Kyle, unimpressed with Little Morathi's behavior thus far, transformed her into her monstrous Shadow Queen form. The Hag and Slaughter Queens kept their buff train rolling, ensuring that the Witch Aelves were at peak efficiency. The army moved forward again and the Avatar of Khaine managed to laser off a few Chainrasps, which i pulled off the table away from the 6" pile in of the Sisters of Slaughter. Few charges took place, Morathi and the Slaughter Queen moved into the Dreadscythe Harridans on the right flank and promptly were surrounded. The Witch Aelves that had just finished destroying my Grimghast Reapers ran forward and wiped out the Myrmourn Banshee unit on the flank as well as the Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed. The Harridans managed to score the 3 wounds on Morathi she can take each turn, and the Slaughter Queen dodged death against the bone claws of the Harridans. Morathi roared in range and lanced out with Heartrender and her envenomed tail, but many blows fell flat as they simply passed through the ethereal forms of her attackers. While the Shadow Queen is more than capable of taking out whole units at a time, the deadly rend of her weapons had no purchase here and only 7 Dreadscythe Harridans fell. I spent a Command Point to ensure they remained on the table, and Kyle scored for controlling the center of the table. As my turn began I made an attempt to cast Vanhel's Dance Macabre with the Necromancer, which Morathi denied immediately. The invigorating aura of my Gravesites returned my Dreadscythes almost to full fighting strength, and the Chainrasp Horde units around the middle of the table were fully restored as well. As the movement phase began my Dreadblade Harrow disappeared into thin air... appearing directly within 9" of the Gravesite near Morathi and just out of range of her shooting attack. With a whispered curse and the expenditure of a single CP, 30 Grimghast Reapers materialized within shouting distance of Morathi. My Chainrasp Horde secured the center of the table to protect my nascent advantage on the right flank, and the Harridans shaved off another 3 wounds from Morathi while she failed to kill more than 2. The Penumbral Engine abandoned me right when i needed it as I rolled for it, switching to a presently useless Mystic Shield provider and stripping me of my valuable CP farm. The remaining objectives fell from the sky... both landing on the far left a whole board away from where my powerbase lay. We hit priority, and Kyle won again, opting to take the turn. Battle Round 3 - Deadlock Kyle buffed up, got his army up with all of their special effects and as many prayers as available to make sure his effectiveness was peak. The Slaughter Queen even used her prayer to enhance her weapon, planning to try carve as many Grimghast Reapers down as possible when they charged in on my turn, and as many Dreadscythe Harridans as possible before then. Morathi halted her attack on the ghosts swarming her briefly to attempt to cast Arzunipal's Black Horror, only for a lowly Necromancer to unbind it and end the attempt. The Khainite cultists began consolidating their board state, forced to split away from my onslaught to capture the new objectives. Morathi, angered by her failed casting, directed her poisonous gaze at a Knight of Shrouds who narrowly dodged being destroyed instantly. Morathi attempted to set about with her spear and end the perfidious gheists attacking her, but was instead brought down to a single wound herself. The Slaughter Queen charged into the Dreadscythes and sliced at them with her Deathsword, but failed to fell enough to make a difference. As my turn begun the Necromancer successfully cast Vanhel's Dance Macabre on the 40 Chainrasps, Morathi failing to deny it. The Chainrasps then moved into position to drag the Cauldron of Blood while surrounding the Sisters of Slaughter holding the objectives on their side of the table. The Dreadblade Harrow disappeared in a wink and appeared in front of the Witch Aelves holding the backfield objective, and with another gesture summoned 24 Myrmourn Banshees to stand between himself and the aelves. The Chainrasps swept in and around doomed Sisters of Slaughter, and tagged the Cauldron of Blood on the back of it's base to prevent it supporting the line-holding attempt against the inbound Grimghast Reapers, who themselves came tearing down on Morathi and the Slaughter Queen as a stepping stone to the middle objective. Confident a crippled Morathi and lone support hero could not diminish 30 Grimghast Reapers, I activated my Chainrasps first and slaughtered the Sisters of Slaughter through sheer weight of attacks. Morathi flailed at the spirits, but to little avail. The Slaughter Queen weathered the scythes of 8 Grimghast Reapers, only to have her soul blasted from her body by the unit's Extoller of Shyish, his Deathknell erasing her permanently. With the table now significantly leveled out between the two armies, and the tide of board control turned towards myself, priority meant everything. Unfortunately, should Kyle win the toss he would be able to simply move forward into my Grimghast Reapers with his screen unit to prevent me receiving both a move AND a charge with them next turn, and fall back with everything else to secure 2 of the 3 points. However if i won it, i would be able to swamp all three objectives as well as return my 2 units of slain Chainrasps to completely dominate the table and pull ahead by a handful of points by turn 5. Sadly Kyle won the roll, and we called it. His early game lead had proven too much to overcome with my attrition, late game focus. THis pulled Kyle ahead in our personal standings to a clean 2/1 to him. Conclusion - What went well Bumping up to two units of Dreadscythes after my game against Regan proved to be a wise choice, they once again pulled their weight. Dreadblade Harrow lived the whole game while contributing to game state in every turn, improving on my failings in the last game. I was able to more effectively screen off attacks against valuable units, and gauged the worth of each fight a lot better this time around. What went poorly The Grimghast Reapers dying immediately because I went too far ahead was preventable, I should have forced the enemy to have to cross the whole table to alpha me if they got a double turn. Penumbral Engine is wildly inconsistent, it would be fine if it was free but it cost me 100pts so I'll be saying goodbye to it. Two units of Myrmourn is one too many for Legion of Grief, two is more viable in Nighthaunt where you can pop them up near enemy casters turn 1, not in Grief where doing so costs a wasted Gravesite.

Dead things dreaming in the darkness. Nothing stirred in the utter blackness of the Deepknell Depths. Nothing living remained in the vast catacombs and narrow tunnels to make a sound. The last incidental collapse of rock, or old bones finally falling apart to clatter across the coarse ground, had happened decades ago. No noise sounded in a place where nothing happened, and nothing ever happened down in the dark. So they had accepted a long time ago, that it was better to simply try to stop existing at all than to wrack and rage at the injustice of their fate. The people above had chosen to spend their lives as coin, and discard them when it suited them. Cold and forgotten. Those people had long since passed into the dirt, their progeny and their progeny after them living quiet and comfortable high above the erstwhile crypt. So quiet not even the slightest sound carried down into the dark. A peaceful life built on the suffering of thousands, ironically mounted above their very tomb. No passage down to the Depths existed, no crack for air to pass through or natural current of water. Noxious gasses were commonplace in the tighter tunnels, but they were oddly repellent to flame rather than conductive - early attempts at clearing the Depths of it's vermin infestation had involved the hurling braziers of flame both natural and otherwise down, achieving nothing more than the odd short-lived fire and scorched whisker, par for the course with the Skaven regardless. Choking throats long-since rotted away. When it became clear that the only solution was to confront the beasts in their own tunnels, hard choices needed to be made. The people of Deepknell Rock were largely peaceful, and were forced to petition the Stormcast Eternals, newfound defenders of Aqshy, to assist them lest their city and the Realmgate within fall to the insidious corruption of the Skaven. When the lightning-men arrived however they were not greeted by the familiar colors and heraldry of the Hammers of Sigmar, but the stark white and sky-blue of the Knights Excelsior. The Knights were a very different breed to their golden armored brethren, and immediately set to work. Forbidden from leveling the whole mountain, caverns and all, due to the presence of the Deepknell Realmgate, they came up with an elegant solution. The city had long housed an impressive prison complex, serving as the jailing quarters for the whole region. The prisoners within were offered a choice by the Knight's leader Cerrus Sentanus, they could die in their cells or take up arms and head into the caverns to redeem themselves and, if they emerged, win their freedom. A choice between death and worse is no choice at all. The people of the city had cheered as they marched into the Breach, and despite their situation the First Penal Legion of Deepknell felt themselves swell with pride. They had been dealt a hard hand, but one they had aided in drawing themselves, and those that lived through this would be welcomed back into a grateful city. They lit their lanterns, straightened their backs, and marched down into the dark. Warp-lightning flashes searing cavern walls. The Skaven are a perfidious race, and deep in the Depths they'd had nothing but time to prepare. Blasts of acidic green lit the caverns as engines of death lanced hellish energy through the ranks of the Penal Legion, with every strike claiming half a dozen lives. Neither force was well trained in the arts of war, and in that dank and dark battleground they fell to disorder, fighting as back-alley cutthroats in the dying light as the lanterns faded and the warp-lightning engines fell to the flaws of their own design. The last light to go out in the dark was the only natural source, the light filtering in from the Deepknell Breach entrance. There was no longer a way out. A prison, traded unknowingly for a grave. The bitter irony was not lost on the former prisoners. Sentanus would keep his word, freedom awaited any of the men that emerged from the caverns. It seemed he had simply ensured that promise could not backfire. Runes of sealing had been inscribed into the now-sealed entrance, a potent force that would ensure the Skaven Gnawholes present in the structure offered them no escape. Sentanus had cleared house effectively, dealing with both the Skaven infestation and the criminals his Stormhost harbored such contempt for. With the natural airflow cut off entirely by the enchantments of the Knights Excelsior the damned criminals and Skaven alike died by degrees as their own panic rapidly consumed the available oxygen. Within hours, every soul under the mountain lay dead, their throats clawed to bitter ruin by their own hand. The rope would have been cleaner. Within weeks the people of Deepknell Rock had stopped mentioning the prison that now stood empty at the edge of the city. An axe would have been kinder. Within years the last insect had died, having gorged itself on the last remaining flesh of the last corpse. The price paid by the guilty forgotten by the innocent. Within decades the First Penal Legion was forgotten. The Knights Excelsior had moved on to less remote climes, and the people of Deepknell Rock had used the breaking of Sigmar's Tempest as an opportunity to build a bustling hub at the edge of the realm. Aqshy was not hospitable by definition, but they had made a life among the geysers of boiling steam and hissing rocks. And far beneath them, the dead granted a mausoleum of their own by the cruelty of the Stormcast, had slipped into languid dreams to cope with the passage of eternity in the dark. Until, on an unusually quiet night both above and below the rock after a season of dark tribulations unprecedented in the fiery realm, a bow-wave of amethystine energy rippled through the world and set hot skin to cold sweat. He calls. A thousand pairs of blue eyes lit up in the dark, the first light the cavern walls had known in decades. Scraps of bone swathed in ethereal blue mist seemingly pulled from the wave of energy itself lifted from the ground, dark animus hoisting the ruined corpses like marionettes on strings of cast-iron chain. As one they looked to their warden, the only soul beneath the mountain who had not come from a cell. Silent as the grave, as soft as the breeze who's touch they had forgotten, he pointed up through the rock to where a sleepy city was coming awake in surprise. We answer.

Me and you m8, constantly getting beat on by our region's finest Death-playing human computer. May you defeat him and i defeat my own demon in Matt B. No Gods No Masters! (Except Nagash who is eternal and in all of us)

Details Date: 27th October 2019 Army: Legions of Grief with Grimghast buff-train focus Opponent: Regan O'Halloran - Legion of Night with Nightfall Pack Game Type: Matched Play 2000pts Scenario: Border War (rolled at random) Few pictures were taken for this report as at the time I wasn't planning on spontaneously starting a hobby blog, the future ones will be LITTERED with them. Setup Regan and I were both playing an allegiance that utilizes Gravesites, and despite my army not being from Legions of Nagash technically it still allows Regan to use mine just as much as he allows me to use his. Naturally there was a lot of umming and ahhing about how to place these without helping the opponent too much, but with us both being relatively inexperienced we largely placed them around areas we wanted to make plays happen. The table scenery was absolutely LITTERED with Inspiring and Damned, with a single piece of Commanding terrain on Regan's side (he explicitly chose to deploy on it despite being less reliant on CP, knowing how desperate my army is for extra CP and denying me it would be a good path to victory). With neither of us having clunky terrain pieces we moved into deployment. Regan was easily able to outdrop me (most armies can) and deployed all of forces on the table except 6 Vargheists, who opted to lay in ambush. I deployed the majority of my army, performing my now staple "stashing Myrmourn in a Gravesite" mindgame. Thoroughly outdropping me, Regan elected to take first. Battle Round 1 - Drop Claws on 'Em Regan began his hero phase by promptly summoning a Balewind Vortex and making use of his Necromancer's artefact of power, Morbheg's Claw. This little diamond in the rough allows the bearer to declare they won't move in exchange for giving all friendly wizards within 12" +2 to cast. He then cast up a storm of buffs and moved forward very conservatively, just enough to take the two side objectives. Content, he passed the turn to me. I began by attempting to cast Vanhel's Dance Macabre and failing, an ominous sign. Deciding to not try anything too fancy, I moved up gently enough to take the two side objectives back off Regan and score myself 5 points to equalize the score. My army was kept tight enough that in the event Regan got the priority I would be able to make use of my wholly within start of combat phase abilities, and ended my turn. I won the priority, and elected to take the turn. Battle Round 2 - The Part Where it All Went Terribly Wrong I opened by not bothering to cast Vanhel's and instead summoned a Prismatic Palisade near Regan's 3 Vargheists and min unit of Skeletons to make the right-hand objective a pillow fight. My Dreadblade Harrow general warped forward towards the right-hand objective (remember this, it's important) and then pushed my Chainrasp units forward to tangle his army up before it could move freely. My army abandoned my board edge largely, moving forward aggressively and leaving the support heroes up the back with open board behind them, and confident in my choices and assured I was the tactical mastermind the voices tell me I am, I magnanimously handed over to Regan's turn. Regan promptly shored up all the buffs under the sun and ambushed my arrogant ass immediately. A unit of 6 Vargheists swooped in from the table edge and immediately made a charge into my back line of Grimghast Reapers while another unit of 3 used their flying move to vault directly over my Chainrasp Horde and throw themselves into the now horribly exposed Dreadblade Harrow. Meanwhile on the left-hand side of the table, a unit of Grave Guard sitting roughly around Super Saiyan Level 4 slammed into 40 Chainrasps. I wasn't terribly concerned as my Chainrasps have survived worse. Battle round 2 ended with a Dreadblade Harrow barely clinging to life and surrounded by monstrous vampire creatures, half of my Reapers torn to shreds by another unit of beasts. The Reapers retaliated and slaughtered 4 of the 6 monsters but they had done their job. The Reapers were tied to them and unable to head forward to assist my army, and the Dreadblade was sitting on 1 wound with any number of heroes able to Arcane Bolt him the moment Regan's next turn began. The 40 Chainrasps were basically turned to mist instantly by the Grave Guard. Summed up, going into priority roll 2, things could have been going better for me. I won the roll, saving the game from an early end. I opted to go first obviously. Battle Round 3 - How the Turntables Turn Beaten, battered, and wondering whether it was too late to cancel the sale of my Slaanesh army, i began rebuilding my defenses. The Grimghast Reapers managed to receive the benefit of no less than 5 Gravesites and a Deathly Invocation, restoring the unit to fighting strength. The Dreadblade, denied his warping ability due to being in combat, opted to simply flee as far as possible to the other side of the table from the bat monsters. The Grimghasts received Vanhel's, while the Myrmourn emerged and began advancing towards the enemy ranks as kites and to stop the enemy Necromancer having free reign of his board side, while the Dreadscythe Harridans moved up to clear out the skeleton chaff denying me objective control. The combat phase was one for me, with only the Myrmourn under-performing against the Grave Guard. The Vargheists were swept aside by scythes and the Grimghast were now free to move in their next turn. Bringing the score closer to equal, I passed the turn back to Regan. Regan behaved unexpectedly, matching my wanton aggression with EVEN MORE AGGRESSION. Mannfred von Carstein grew bored of watching from the sidelines and heeled Ashigaroth forward to flank my Grimghast Reapers on their left side, simultaneously baiting me, supporting his nascent Grave Guard and genuinely threatening my Reapers all at once. Mannfred destroyed the Dreadblade Harrow with contemptuous ease, taking away my ability to return destroyed units. Keeping away from the Reapers, Mannfred as ever made sure there would be minimal consequences for maximum dickery. I won another priority roll, clinging on for dear life. Battle Round 4 - Go Not Gentle into that Good Night Regan, having considerately relived me of my casting heroes and general, streamlined my turn rather effectively. With no spells to sling, speeches to give or gotcha moments to pull out, I kept things simple. I moved forward with everything, and made one hell of a charge. The Dreadscythes swamped the Vampire Lord hiding in cover in Regan's back line while the Reapers got 15 into reach of the skeleton bomb defending his home objective, and 8 within range of Mannfred. Scythes started swinging and hook hands a-slashing, and when the dust cleared i had evened the odds across the table. Mannfred was bloodied and bruised, and the Skeletons standing between me and my chance at clawing victory from defeat where obliterated. Sadly Regan promptly reminded me that while Mannfred is known as a traitor, a schemer and unlikely to win beauty competitions, he's also a pretty good Necromancer. The Skeletons I had swept aside like corn reemerged and swamped the rear objective, while Mannfred simply tagged my Reapers to keep them locked in place. With a lead of several points, Regan ended his turn. Regan won the priority roll, whereupon we called the game as all he needed to do was pass his turn. Conclusion - What went well Dreadscythes are really good and I need two run two units Grimghast Reapers are gross, and don't need much support to do well Dreadblade teleportation is amazing when done right What went poorly Dreadblade teleportation is awful if you behave aggressively against things that will just one-shot him Be mindful of blocking off board edges for ambush units Ethereal Saves aren't actually a free pass and anything with enough attacks will slice through them Over all i was pleased with the army itself, if not the outcome. Everything that went badly on my end was due to me misplaying or making bad judgement calls, rather than inherit weaknesses in the army. It didn't help that Regan is a strong opponent and also knows me well enough to know when I'm getting too cocky. Looking forward to seeing his army when it's fully painted as he's also the Valley's resident commission painter and he does great work. Regan's twitter: @PaintPyrow My Twitter: @ThreeTwoPrince

Introduction to The Blog Hey all, Aiden here. Might maybe remember my blog last year on Skaven Pestilens where I churned out article after article on the army before the Skaventide update at the start of this year. Wasn't really my thing so I started focusing on my Slaanesh. Then they got updated and I didn't like playing "OP" and went looking for something that I could enjoy but would reward good gameplay knowledge without making me feel like the army was doing all the work for me. Ghosts Ahoy When Nighthaunt dropped at the start of "Age of Sigmar 2" I was relatively apathetic to them. I thought their design aesthetic was fantastic, but straight out the gate they weren't considered particularly good and the level of exposure they had short of the odd niche win was merely their best units being cherry-picked into Legions of Nagash and seeing the Legion of Sacrament to horrendous dominance with 60 Grimghast Reapers (Punitive measures were taken against this eventually by nerfing Reapers, which only hurt generic Nighthaunt even more) which didn't look overly fun to me, so I forgot about them. When Forbidden Power was announced however, I saw that it would feature rules for Defenders of Lethis (literally who) and the Legion of Grief. As i thought Legions of Nagash was a pretty well put together book customization-wise i was immediately interested and picked up a copy of Soul Wars as well as a big haul of Nighthaunt models to get me off the ground. Wanting to play into the theme of it being Olynder's legion, I purchased her as well as other models that played into her aesthetic. I would quickly discover that ironically including Lady Olynder in a Legion of Grief list massively hamstrings it's effectiveness, but trial and error are vital. With a tournament (Sigmar at Winterdale Tavern) exactly one month away from this 2000pts of models arriving I thought well alright, let's see if I can pull this one off. Over the course of the month I played numerous trial games with different lists, trying out both Nighthaunt and Legions of Grief to see what suited me better. I found Nighthaunt to be a little inconsistent and the battalion I had chosen (Shrieker Host) to be largely too situational to be worth it's cost and thus committed to Grief. When I discovered that the idea of Grief wasn't actually to be scary and ****** with battleshock, but is in fact to settle down, build a farm and raise a nice crop of Command Points Olynder was promptly dropped from the list to allow a non-named character to step in and take the trait Vassal of the Craven King (it's Aetherquartz Broach, but a trait) and another character to take the Aetherquartz Broach (it's Vassal of the Crave.. you get the point). It was all coming together. The army was painted in time and we made it to the Winterdale Tavern (https://www.winterdaletavern.co.nz/) for the event. It was a one dayer designed to expose the venue to the AoS community and the event did not disappoint. Not often the TO does a Mitre 10/Bunnings style Sausage Sizzle immediately after round 1 for the attendees. My results were 2 wins and 1 loss, the loss is pictured above where I was unable to deal with four Vampire Lords on Zombie Dragons (piloted by NZ #1 two years running Matt Britton) quickly enough to seize victory. The army performed above my expectations, and simply, I was in love. Conquest of the Mortal Realms (Wellington, surrounding areas) With my choice cemented and my Slaanesh sold, packaged and in the mail to an undisclosed location, i was ready to go. First things first, i needed to expand. Having a painted 2k list is nice, but without additional options (additional options that aren't garbage, go away Lord Executioner) there isn't a lot of room for flexibility. With NZ Masters 2019 a month away ya boi pulled his signature move and ordered another massive horde of models to paint in a month. Oops. My Element Games crystals had stacked high enough i was able to nab a Spirit Torment and Chainghasts for free for casual games with the local club and I was able to pick up a limited edition Guardian of Souls from a lad online. The rest of the purchase requires no explanation. The End of All Things (But Mostly Just this Article) This brings us up to speed. The Grimghasts are on my desk being painted with every spare second I get, and every day draws nearer to flying down to Christchurch (our country is largely two big islands, sadly this event is on the island I don't live on) and going for gold with Olynder's Legion of Grief. I'll be posting a lot of hobby content as I go, and a ton of Battle Reports with local legends and fellow players in my local club. Will be posting a lot on twitter (@ThreeTwoPrince) and the various Age of Sigmar Facebook groups in New Zealand. Cheers for reading.